Amplifier system

The present invention relates to an amplifier system where a plurality of amplifiers connected to a network is controlled by an amplifier control apparatus.

Heretofore, there have been known professional-use audio systems which are employed in sound amplification apparatus (PA (Public Address System)) in concert halls, theaters, etc. in music production, etc. Such audio systems use many audio amplifiers that amplify sound signals and supply the amplified sound signals to many speakers provided at predetermined positions. In this connection, amplifier systems which are applied to networked audio systems and in which a plurality of amplifiers and amplifier control apparatus are connected to a network so that the plurality of amplifiers are controlled by the amplifier control apparatus.

In each of such amplifier systems, amplifier manager software is pre-installed in a personal computer, and the personal computer and the plurality of amplifiers are connected via the network. Through the amplifier manager software running on an operating system of the personal computer, states of the amplifiers can be monitored via the network, and behavior of the amplifiers can be remote-controlled via the network. Namely, the personal computer where the amplifier manager is running can be used as the amplifier control apparatus, and a main window of the amplifier manager is displayed on the display device of the amplifier control apparatus. The main window comprises a tree list of the amplifiers connected to the network and a plurality of pages capable of displaying the name and operation data of any of the equipment selected from the tree list.

Once an “Amp” page is selected from among the plurality of pages, the Amp page for controlling and monitoring the amplifiers is displayed. The Amp page comprises, for example, four pages on each of which are displayed channels of up to eight amplifiers. For each of the channels are displayed level data of the operation data via “elements”, such as an Output meter indicative of an output level of the channel, Temp meter indicative of a temperature of the channel and Input meter indicative of an input level of the channel. Also, for each of the channels, ON/OFF parameters of the operation data, such as an ATT fader for attenuating an input signal and Mute button for muting the channel, are displayed via elements in such a manner that any of these ON/OFF parameters can be changed as desired. Further, on a Group View page of the plurality of pages, desired channels of the plurality of pages connected to the network can be grouped, controlled and monitored. The Group View page comprises, for example, eight group pages, on each of which can be displayed up to sixteen channels. Operation data displayed for each of the channels are similar to those of the Amp page. One example of the conventionally-known amplifier systems is disclosed in a non-patent literature, “NetworkAmp Manager V1.1. OE Plus for Win XP/2000 Instruction Manual”, Yamaha Corporation.

With the conventionally-known amplifier control apparatus, the operation data of the amplifiers can be displayed and monitored on the pages of the main window, but types of the operation data that can be displayed on the Amp page and Group page are limited. Thus, when detailed operation data, including output electric power and alert threshold levels, are to be displayed, it has been conventional to open a Channel Detail page to display details of individual channels on the Channel Detail page. However, the conventional amplifier control apparatus present the problem that detailed operation data of the amplifiers can be monitored only channel by channel. Besides, the operation data are displayed on the Group View page per channel of the channel in question, so that the operation data of the entire group can not be monitored collectively. Further, the operation data identical in structure between amplifies of the same group, the operation data can be displayed on the Group View page; however, if the operation data are not identical in structure between amplifies of the same group, the operation data can be displayed on the Group View page in the control apparatus. Furthermore, the user may sometimes want to monitor the maximum value of some of level data, such as input and output levels, of the operation data, and the user may sometimes want to monitor the minimum value of other level data; however, so far, it has been impossible to monitor the maximum and minimum data values as desired.

Further, in such a case, it is conceivable to synthesize level data of the individual amplifiers of the group and display synthesized level data; however, if the group comprises a plurality of different types of amplifiers, the synthesized level data can not be displayed in the control apparatus because the level data differ in type, etc. depending on the types of the amplifiers.

Furthermore, in a case where operation data are to be grouped on the basis of destination speakers to which the data are to be supplied, they are grouped on a channel-by-channel basis, not on an amplifier-by-amplifier basis. In this case, there arises a need to monitor the operation data or level data of the group per channel of the amplifiers in order to check wire connections and deal with occurrence of any abnormality; however, so far, such monitoring has been impossible.

The assignee of the instant application proposed an amplifier control system in which a plurality of amplifiers and an amplifier control apparatus are connected to a network, and in which all of the amplifiers residing in the network are grouped, the grouped amplifiers are displayed in a tree format and state information are displayed in the amplifier control apparatus. In the proposed amplifier control apparatus, the grouped amplifiers are displayed in a tree format in a tree display section, and operating states of any one of the amplifies selected in the tree display section are displayed in a state information display section. Further, in the tree display section, a selected one of a plurality of groups is displayed in a tree format. Desired group to be displayed in a tree format can be selected via a tab. In the tree display, there can be displayed hierarchical groups expanded from the selected group and amplifiers belonging to the hierarchical groups.

The amplifier control apparatus selects a desired amplifier in the tree display section displayed on a control screen and thereby displays operating states of the selected amplifier in the state information display section. In this way, the selected amplifier can be monitored. But, in the case of a large-scale audio hall, where an enormous number of amplifiers, e.g. dozens or hundreds of amplifiers, are used, it is not a realistic approach to select and monitor the amplifiers one by one; thus, it is conceivable to provide a user interface that permits collective and individual displaying of a plurality of amplifiers, to thereby monitor all of the displayed amplifiers as if turning over pages.

However, monitoring all of the amplifiers by means of the aforementioned means tends to be cumbersome and time-consuming. Further, because all parameters of the individual amplifiers need not be constantly monitored and states of the amplifiers can be monitored to some degree if just general outlines of the parameters can be monitored, there has been a demand for an apparatus that can monitor general outlines of parameters of a plurality of amplifiers.

In view of the foregoing, it is an object of the present invention to provide an amplifier system in which a plurality of amplifiers and an amplifier control apparatus are connected via a network, and which has a function for not only allowing detailed operation data of each individual one of the amplifiers to be displayed in the amplifier control apparatus but also allowing minimum and maximum values of the operation dada in an entire group of the amplifiers to be displayed in the amplifier control apparatus.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an amplifier system including an amplifier control apparatus which can display not only detailed level data of each individual amplifier but also minimum and maximum values of each type of level data in an entire group of amplifiers.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide an amplifier system including an amplifier control apparatus which can not only display detailed operation data of each individual amplifier but also monitor operation dada or level data of groups, grouped on a channel-by-channel basis, separately for each of the channels of the amplifiers.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide an amplifier system which can monitor a necessary amplifier parameter without requiring much time and labor.

In order to accomplish the above-mentioned objects, the present invention provides an improved amplifier system including a plurality of amplifiers and an amplifier control apparatus interconnected via a network, in which each of the amplifiers comprises: an input section to which is inputted a sound signal; a processing section that amplifies the sound signal inputted to said input section; an output section that outputs the sound signal amplified by said processing section; a storage that stores a set of parameters, for controlling the amplification by said processing section; and a changing section that changes a value of a parameter stored in said storage and transmits a report notifying the change of the parameter to the amplifier control apparatus. Further, the amplifier control apparatus comprises: a display device; an input device that receives user\'s operation; a storage that stores a plurality of sets of parameters corresponding to the plurality of amplifiers, each of the parameter sets having data structure and values to the parameter set stored in the corresponding one of said amplifiers; an update section that receives the report from one of said amplifiers and updates the parameter set corresponding to the one amplifier in said storage on the basis of the report; a grouping section that groups said amplifiers into groups in response to a grouping operation received by said input device; a first display controller that, in response to an amplifier selecting operation received by said input device, selects one of said amplifiers, and displays an amplifier detail screen having an element thereon for the selected amplifier on said display device, wherein said first display controller takes out a parameter corresponding to the element from the parameter sets corresponding to the selected amplifier stored in said storage and displays the value of the parameter via the element on said display device; and a second display controller that, in response to a group selecting operation received by said input device, selects one of said groups and displays a group detail screen having an element thereon for the selected group on said display device, wherein said second display controller takes out a parameter corresponding to the elements from each of the parameter sets corresponding to the amplifiers in the selected group stored in said storage, detects a maximum value and a minimum value from among the taken-out parameters and displays the detected maximum and minimum values via the element on said display device.

According to the present invention, the first display controller takes out, for each element in the amplifier detail screen, a value of the corresponding parameter (i.e., parameter corresponding to the element) of the amplifier from the control-side operation data storage section and displays the taken-out value of the parameter via the element. The second display controller takes out, for each element in the group detail screen, values of the corresponding parameter of the individual amplifiers belonging to the group from the storage, detects maximum and minimum values from among the taken-out values of the parameter and displays the detected maximum and minimum values via the element. Thus, when any one of the groups has been selected, the present invention permits collective monitoring of the maximum and minimum values of the operation data of the amplifiers belonging to the selected group. When an individual amplifier has been selected, on the other hand, the present invention permits monitoring of states of the operation data of the selected amplifier. Further, a group detail screen having all elements contained in amplifier detail screens corresponding to the types of the amplifiers belonging to the selected group may be displayed on the display device, in which case, even where the operation data differ in structure among the amplifiers belonging to the selected group, the display of the group detail screen permits collective monitoring of the operation data of the amplifiers belonging to the selected group.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an improved amplifier system including a plurality of amplifiers and an amplifier control apparatus interconnected via a network, in which each of said amplifiers comprises: an input section to which is inputted a sound signal; a processing section that amplifies the sound signal inputted to said input section; an output section that outputs the sound signal amplified by said processing section; a detector that detects various kinds of operating states of said processing section and generates a plurality of level data representing the detected operating states; and a transmitter that, in response to a request command from the amplifier control apparatus, transmits a requested level data to the amplifier control apparatus. Further, the amplifier control apparatus comprises: a display device; an input device that receives user\'s operation; a storage that stores level data to be displayed; an update section that receives the level data from any of said amplifiers and updates corresponding one of the level data, stored in said storage, with the received level data; a grouping section that groups said amplifiers into groups in response to a grouping operation received by said input device; a setting section that, in response to a setting operation received by said input device, sets one of ‘maximum’ and ‘minimum’ to a parameter for each of elements on group detail screens corresponding to said groups; a first display controller that, in response to an amplifier selecting operation received by said input device, selects one of said amplifiers, and displays an amplifier detail screen having an element thereon for the selected amplifier on said display device, wherein said first display controller transmits a request command, requesting level data corresponding to the element, to the selected amplifier, reads out the level data, transmitted by the selected amplifier in response to the request command and received by said update section, from said storage, and displays the read-out level data via said element on said display device; and a second display controller that, in response to a group selecting operation received by said input device, selects one of said groups and displays a group detail screen having an element thereon for the selected group on said display device, wherein said second display controller transmits a request command, requesting level data corresponding to the element, to each of the amplifiers in the selected group, reads out a plurality of level data, transmitted by the amplifier in the selected group and received by said update section, from said storage, and displays a maximum value among the values of the read-out level data if the ‘maximum’ is set to the element, or a minimum value among the values of the read-out level data if the ‘minimum’ is set to the element, via said element on said display device.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an improved amplifier system including a plurality of two-channel amplifiers and an amplifier control apparatus interconnected via a network, in which each of the two-channel amplifiers comprises: an input section to which is inputted sound signals of two channels; a processing section that amplifies the sound signals of two channels inputted to said input section; an output section that outputs the sound signals of two channels amplified by said processing section; a storage that stores therein operation data or level data of each of the two channels, operation data of one of the two channels controlling the amplification of a sound signal of the one channel in said processing section, level data of one of the two channels being indicative of an operation state of the channel in said processing section; and a communication section that communicates data with the amplifier control apparatus via the network. Further, the amplifier control apparatus comprises: a display device; an input device that receives user\'s operation; a communication section that communicates data with each of said two-channel amplifiers via the network; a grouping section that groups the channels of the amplifiers into groups in response to a grouping operation received by said input device; a first display controller that, in response to an amplifier selecting operation received by said input device, selects one of said amplifiers, displays an amplifier detail screen having two elements corresponding to the two channels thereon for the selected amplifier on said display device, acquires operation data or level data, corresponding to the elements, of the two channels from the selected amplifier via the network, and displays the acquired operation data or level data via the two elements; a second display controller that, in response to a channel selecting operation received by said input device, selects one channel of an amplifier among a plurality of channels of the amplifiers, displays a channel detail screen, on which only one of two elements same as the two elements on said amplifier detail screen, corresponding to the selected channels of the amplifier is placed while the other element is vanished or invalidated, acquires operation data or level data, corresponding to the one element, of the selected channel from the amplifier having the selected channel via the network, and display the acquired operation data or level data via the one element; and a third display controller that, in response to a group selecting operation received by said input device, selects one of said groups and (1) if the selected group contains both of the two channels, said third display controller displays a first group detail screen, on which two elements are placed same as the amplifier detail screen, acquires operation data or level data of the channels in the selected group from the amplifiers having one or two of the channels in the selected group via the network, processes the acquired data independently for each of the two channels to obtain two visual data for the two channels, and displays the two visual data via the two elements, and otherwise (2) if the selected group contains only one of the two channels, said third display controller displays a second group detail screen, on which one element corresponding to the one channel is placed same as on said channel detail screen, acquires operation data or level data of the channels in the selected group from the amplifiers having one of the channels in the selected group via the network, processes the acquired data to obtain one visual data for the one channel, and displays the one display data via the one element.

According to the invention arranged in the aforementioned manner, when any one of the plurality of amplifiers has been selected, the first display controller displays on the display device an amplifier detail screen having two element corresponding to the two channels (i.e., first and second channels) and displays, for each of the elements, corresponding operation data or level data of the selected amplifier. When any one of the channels of any one of the plurality of amplifiers has been selected, the second display controller displays a channel detail screen, where each of the elements corresponding to the other channel is displayed as invalid, and displays, for each of the elements of the selected channel, operation data or level data corresponding to the selected channel. Further, if the selected group contains both of the channels, the third display controller displays on the display device a group detail screen of the same construction as the amplifier detail screen, and synthesizes and displays, for each of the elements of the individual channels in the group detail screen, operation data or level data of the channels of each of the amplifiers belonging to the selected group. If the selected group contains only one of the two channels without containing the other channel, the third display control section displays a channel detail screen where each of the elements corresponding to the other channel is displayed as invalid, and synthesizes and displays, for each of the elements of the one channel in the channel detail screen, operation data or level data corresponding to the respective one channel of each of the amplifiers belonging to the selected group. Thus, when any one of the groups has been selected, the present invention allows the operation data or level data of the one channel, contained in the amplifiers of the selected group, to be synthesized and displayed, and causes the other channel, not contained in the amplifiers of the selected group, to be displayed as invalid. When an individual amplifier has been selected, on the other hand, the present invention allows the operation data or level data of the selected channel to be displayed per element of the selected channel, and causes the other or non-selected channel to be displayed as invalid.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an improved amplifier system including a plurality of amplifiers and an amplifier control apparatus interconnected at least to via a network, in which the amplifier control apparatus comprises: a display device that provides a first screen and a second screen, said first screen displaying information of the groups and amplifiers belonging to each of the groups, said second screen displaying information of at least a parameter value indicative of an operating state of at least one of amplifiers displayed on the first screen; an operation section operable to select any one of the groups or the amplifiers displayed on the first screen; and a control section controlling display on the display device such that, if any one of the amplifiers is selected by said operation section, the parameter value of the selected amplifier are acquired and displayed on the second screen, and that, if any one of the groups is selected by said operation section, parameter values of all of the amplifiers belonging to the selected group are obtained and, as regards a same type of parameter among the obtained parameter values of all of the amplifiers, a predetermined one of minimum, maximum and average value of the obtained parameter values of the same type of parameter is generated and displayed on the second screen.

The groups may be hierarchical groups in a tree structure and the first screen displays said information of the groups and amplifiers in the tree structure. The second screen may further display information of a parameter state indicative of the operating state of said at least one of amplifiers displayed on the first screen. The control section may further control the display on the display device such that, if any one of the groups is selected by said operation section, parameter states of all of the amplifiers belonging to the selected group are obtained and, as regards a same type of parameter among the obtained parameter states of all of the amplifiers, a parameter state indicative of abnormality is displayed with priority on the second screen.